


Veronica Mars, Season 2, Episode 6, Rat Saw God

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s02e06 Rat Saw God, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 02, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:28:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25182505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.





	Veronica Mars, Season 2, Episode 6, Rat Saw God

Open a group of people watching the election results at the Mars household.

Veronica is glum about the fact Keith is losing and that Wallace is ignoring her attempts to contact him.

At the police station, Hannah’s dad makes his first appearance. He informs Lamb he was the one who made the anonymous call regarding Felix.

Meanwhile, at some other party, Logan and Dick have a conversation wherein Logan brings up the fact he slept with Kendall. Dick couldn’t care less, and the two’s friendship is unshaken.

Viewers aren’t stupid. Unless the show wanted to go the out-of-character route of making Dick care, there was no need to make the point he didn’t.

Back at the Mars household, the TV announces Lamb won the election.

Everyone clears out, and Veronica insists they should have released the recording of the explosion on the bus crash. Keith says not doing so was the best thing for the investigation. She counters a competent sheriff would have been the best thing for the investigation. He tells her to go to her boyfriend’s party, and coming over, Cliff promises to look after Keith.

At said party, Dick and Gia are talking. Dick is his usual bastard child of Satan self, and Gia is her usual nice, somewhat ditzy self. She goes over to talk to Veronica, and they discuss their respective dads. When Gia makes it clear she has a bit of a crush on Dick, Veronica does not bluntly tell Gia to be smart and stay as far away as possible from him.

Showing up at the party, Sacks completely ignores all the underage drinking going. He quietly asks Logan to come with him, but refusing, Logan ends up arrested for the murder of Felix in front of everyone.

Afterwards, Sacks and Keith talk on the phone as Lamb immaturely refuses to talk to Keith. It’s revealed the bus has been retrieved and will soon be tested.

When Veronica returns home, she finds Abel waiting for her. Sicker than ever, he says he needs her to find his daughter, Amelia, before he dies.

After the credits, Veronica wonders why she should help Abel, and he plaintively replies, “Because, I’m begging you.” Agreeing, she insists they find him a hospital.

At the station, Logan’s in a line-up, and he handles this situation with his customary reasonableness and class, i.e. absolutely none at all. Lamb waits entirely too long to yank him out, and once he finally does, he tells Logan to get a lawyer. Logan orders him just to find the first sober public defender he can.

Now, I could be completely wrong, but I don’t think it works this way. In America, an attorney should be appointed if a person **can’t** pay, but I don’t think this extends to if the person is simply unwilling to.

Lamb says he’ll do everything he can to make sure Logan doesn’t make bail, and this is what he should do. Yeah, Lamb is being his customary self here, and it’s a stupid move to actually say this to Logan, but I don’t consider him trying to keep Logan from making bail to be police corruption or misconduct in and of itself.

Logan is an impulsive, exceedingly wealthy character who is known for rarely minding his own business. He not only has no alibi but also has some pretty compelling evidence against him. No even halfway decent officer of the law would want this impulsive, rich, potentially guilty person with an inability to mind his own business running around free during an extremely delicate investigation.

To be clear, though, there are right and wrong ways to try to keep Logan from making bail, and my statement he should do everything he can is limited to everything on the side of reasonable, legal, and non-abusive.

Meanwhile, Veronica goes to see Amelia’s ex-boyfriend. He explains Amelia used the money she got from the Kanes to take him to Europe, and then, abandoned him. He had to call his parents in order to get back home.

I don’t judge her for breaking up with him, but I do judge her for not paying for his plane ticket back home. It’s also revealed she had his phone cards.

Next, Veronica talks to Amelia’s roommate. Explaining Amelia just disappeared, she expresses her surprise when told about the trip to Europe. She declares Amelia wasn’t a party girl.

Going back to the ex-boyfriend, Veronica asks if he happened to jot down the numbers on his phone cards.

Next, she makes a post online asking for information on Amelia.

At the station, Cliff comes in to talk to Logan. They aren’t impressed with one another.

Then, Cliff gets a call from Veronica. They cutely argue over who owes the other one more, and eventually, he agrees to help her out. Once he hangs up, he starts to make the call for her, and admittedly, this is completely unprofessional on his part.

On the phone, Cliff uses emotional manipulation and legit-sounding lies, and now amused, Logan makes quiet comments.

Eventually, the woman agrees to email the information on the phone card’s usage to Cliff. He gives her Veronica’s email address.

After hanging up, he spells out the fact Lamb is claiming to wait to keep Logan locked up to ease community tensions but that the real reason is Lamb is a jerk.

Again, jerk or not, Lamb trying to keep Logan from making bail isn’t particularly wrong in and of itself.

Cliff’s advice is for Logan to hire several good defence attorneys.

There’s a brief scene of Veronica discovering Amelia made a call to Neptune.

Back at the station, Lamb makes a subtle prison rape joke. I don’t appreciate this.

After Lamb leaves, Aaron reveals himself as Logan’s cellmate, because, Lamb being a horrible person is not tempered by any sort of intelligence.

Confessing to sleeping with Lilly, Aaron insists Duncan found out about them and had an episode. Logan brings up the little fact of Aaron trying to kill his other girlfriend, and Aaron claims his attack on Veronica was due him having a nervous breakdown. He tries to convince Logan to let him call a decent lawyer for Logan, and Logan brings up Cliff. Aaron makes the same point Cliff himself made, namely: Cliff isn’t the lawyer anyone wants in their corner if they’re facing a murder charge.

Speaking of, Cliff reappears. He’s managed to get Logan bail due to going to the same gym as someone important, and explaining what Logan owes him in terms of billing, he reiterates the fact Logan needs to find a different lawyer.

Meanwhile, Veronica tracks the last phone call Amelia made to a payphone in front of Kane industries.

Inside the building, coming in, CW is annoyed to see his assistant also coming in. Apologising, she explains she got a call telling her about her car being towed. Seeing his office door slightly open, he braces himself before entering. Sitting at his desk, Veronica snaps her fingers. “What are you the head of again?” Hah!

She makes a jibe about his office, and he simply asks what she’s doing there. She inquires about Amelia, and they get into a technical argument over whether CW bribed Amelia to disappear or if he merely tracked her down to sign some legal documents.

When she mentions the phone call, he claims Amelia didn’t call him, and furthermore, he has no further interest in where she is, what she does, or who she calls. Ordering Veronica to leave, he picks up the phone, and she says, “No need to call yourself to escort me out. You know I know the drill.”

Back at school, Dick is trying to convince Duncan to go somewhere with him, and the PCHers wander over. Weevil tells them about the witness who claims to have seen Logan kill Felix. Duncan and Dick leave, and another PCHer comes over to exposit Logan made bail. Weevil decides it’s time to do something about Logan.

Meanwhile, Veronica and Duncan kiss.

This grosses Dick out, because, I suppose consensual, affectionate displays are too much for his evil soul to handle. R

Revealing they have fake IDs, the two are planning to go somewhere. Veronica realises something, and Duncan thinks she disapproves. Assuring him she doesn’t, she leaves.

Walking down the hallway, Veronica calls Amelia’s ex-boyfriend. Amelia was twenty when they were together, and therefore, she must have needed a fake ID.

It’s revealed Amelia got a fake ID from her cousin, and Veronica types the cousin’s name into her computer.

In a squad car, Lamb is driving Logan, and Logan is babbling about his plans to catch up on some show. Lamb hears something on his earphone, and with dread in his voice, he asks, “What’s your address, again?”

They pull up to Logan’s house. Several emergency vehicles are already there, and the house is on fire.

At a rental car centre, Veronica flirts with the rental agent. If anyone’s interested, Joss Whedon plays him. She finds out what type and colour of the car Amelia rented.

Going outside, Veronica alters her appearance, and once Whedon’s character leaves, she goes back inside to convince a different agent to locate the car for her.

At the station, Keith comes into Lamb’s office to ask about the forensics on the bus. Lamb had thought losing the sheriff race would make Keith drop the bus investigation.

This is further proof Lamb is way out of his league.

Keith points out Lamb wouldn’t have even retrieved the bus if it weren’t for Keith handing over the recording of the explosion.

Trying the ole divide-and-conquer method, Lamb tells Keith about the dead man with Veronica’s name written on his palm.

In a car, Veronica pulls up to a motel. Inside, she shows Amelia’s picture to the perverted desk clerk, and he says she checked in a few days ago. Veronica asks to see the room she rented, and the desk clerk refuses to show her unless she actually rents said room. Sighing, Veronica complies.

Once she’s in the room, she VOs about how it doesn’t fit for Amelia, a multimillionaire who was traveling around Europe, to check into a hotel like this one. Her phone rings, and it’s Keith. He asks where she is, and she lies she’s at an art gallery. Demanding she snap a picture to send it to her, he continues they will be talking about the dead guy on the beach once she gets home.

She explains the guy was once a stuntman for Aaron who had the expertise to blow up the bus. Almost crying, she lets her guilt over the fact her classmates might have died in an attempt for her to be taken out show, and I do think Keith is sympathetic and wants to make things better. However, right now, he’s worried, hurt, and not dealing well himself. He snaps being a parent makes him understand the feeling all too well.

They hang up, and unrealistically, the seedy hotel has enough pictures she’s able to arrange them on the wall to take a picture with her camera to send to Keith.

She uses her laptop to send the picture, and I would have thought she would have snapped a picture with her phone and texted it. As it is, her laptop detects Amelia’s Bluetooth. She tries to see the other hotel rooms near her, and the desk clerk keeps insisting she pay.

Why doesn’t she just break in? Also, what is the desk clerk going to do if there’s a sudden onslaught of customers? Since he willingly rented the rooms to her and she hasn’t done anything wrong, he can’t legally force her to relinquish them until the allotted time is up.

As Veronica is wandering around hotel grounds, she finds a hand in the ice machine.

Running back to her room, she doesn’t shut the door as she starts to make a phone call, and appearing, CW shuts the door. He complains he told her to mind her own business.

Veronica starts to lie Keith knows where she is and what she’s doing, but either not recognising her terror or not caring, CW asks if what made her run from the ice machine was Amelia’s dead body. She starts to call someone, but he tells her to wait. Sitting down, he admits he wasn’t entirely upfront with her.

Amelia called him two times. The first time, she demanded another quarter million dollars, and the second time she called was to arrange for the pickup. He gave her the money in marked bills under the condition she get on a plane and not come back until the Kane legal issues were settled. However, the bills started showing up around the hotel area.

Going to the desk clerk, they ask if anyone was with Amelia. When said desk clerk tries to be his usual charmless self, CW threatens to break his fingers if he doesn’t start answering.

The desk clerk says her boyfriend was with her, and when they both glare at him, he does make the valid point Veronica didn’t ask. He gives a description which millions, if not billions, of young white males would fit, and they leave with CW gritting out a, “Thank you.” Hee.

Outside, CW asks if Veronica knows someone who fits the description, and she says yes. He says she needs to take him to this person. She starts to bring up the dead body, but saying he’ll handle it, he makes it clear his motivation is to do damage control so that this doesn’t become public news. She tries to protest, but he’s already walking off.

Back at the station, Aaron is put in an interrogation room with Keith, and he’s nervous about the fact there are only two chairs set up. Informing him this is an unofficial visit with just the three of them, Keith adds the guard will deny Keith was ever here.

Aaron is incredulous Keith thinks he might have had anything to do with the bus crash. Although, notably, he says nothing about the fact that, unaware of the limo rental, he would’ve been operating under the assumption Logan would have been on the bus.

Keith says if anything happens to Veronica, he’s blaming Aaron, and as he just demonstrated, it’s not hard at all for him to get access.

At Amelia’s ex-boyfriend’s dorm, Veronica protests as CW holds him out the window. CW repeatedly asks if he conspired with Amelia to blackmail Kane industries, and for some reason, I find it darkly funny this is what he cares about most.

The next scene has CW and Veronica walking down a hallway. She asks if he thinks the ex-boyfriend killed Amelia, and he answers no.

In the quad, Logan is showing his anklet to Dick and the others. Coming over, Weevil shoves a paper in his face. It turns out, Logan bought the house Weevil’s grandmother’s renting, and he’s evicting the whole family.

The two come to physical blows.

In her room, Veronica is writing an email to Wallace when someone pings her. She sets up her webcam, and a woman appears on screen. She saw Veronica’s earlier post, and now, she sends a picture of a group of people. Veronica confirms it’s Amelia in the picture.

Asking if Amelia is still with her boyfriend, the other woman calls him a tremendous liar.

After disconnecting, Veronica calls the perverted desk clerk to send him the photo where Amelia is in between her ex-boyfriend and another man. The clerk says the other guy was the one she checked-in with. Re-contacting the other woman, she asks which one was Amelia’s boyfriend, and the answer is the other man. Veronica asks his name.

Next, she calls CW. He’s a diplomat’s kid, and so, he won’t be able to prosecuted. In response, he says he’s tracked down some more of the bills, and with a look of horror appearing, she asks what he’s going to do. He doesn’t explicitly answer, but the implication he’s going to kill the guy is an easy one to read.

I might be missing something, but why has he been labelled the killer? He was her boyfriend, he might have helped her blackmail Kane industries, and one woman called him a liar. He definitely could be the killer, but where’s the proof? The evidence? An established motive? Him having some of her money does make it more likely, but it’s not absolute proof.

Putting the above aside, I’m curious why CW is going after the diplomat’s kid. It could be he’s angry at the extortion, or it could be, despite his assertions Amelia wasn’t his responsibility, he does feel as if he indirectly contributed to her death by giving her the money both times. If this is the case, he’s likely doing it to make it up to her as much as he can by giving her as much justice as anyone can considering the man’s diplomatic status.

At the hospital, Veronica VOs she doesn’t know what she should say to Abel. She asks a nurse about him, and he tells her Abel has a day or two left.

Patient confidentially, anyone? No?

Making up her mind, she goes to the hospital room. Amelia is trying her best to get back, she says, but there’s an early snow, and Amelia’s waiting for a helicopter to arrive. Realising he’s unlikely to see his daughter before he dies, he tearfully rasps out, “But she’s happy?”

Managing a genuine-looking smile, Veronica assures him Amelia was having a blast hoofing the Himalayas. He holds out his hand, and sitting down on the bed, she takes it.

I give props to the show for managing to deliver such a powerful, non-melodramatic scene.

Though, I wonder, how she'd handle this if Abel asked about talking to Amelia on the phone, face-chatting with her, or even just having an email/text conversation with her.

Later, instead of going home, she stops by Duncan’s hotel. Going over to the couch, she curls up on top of someone she assumes is Duncan.

It’s Logan, and appearing, Duncan explains Logan’s going to be staying with him due to the whole arson thing.

Elsewhere, Keith breaks into the place holding the bus. On the bus, he drops down when someone else comes in, and doing so, he discovers a rat corpse taped underneath one of the seats.

I like the way the title applies to both the literal and metaphorical. Most obviously, there’s the literal dead rat, but if the diplomat’s kid did kill Amelia, he’s a ‘rat’, and CW is going to send him to ‘see God’ by killing him.

Fin.


End file.
